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I back cycle campaign, says taxi chief facing boycott

April 21 2012, 1:01am, The Times

John Griffin: chairman of Addison LeeAddison Lee

The boss of Britain’s biggest minicab company pledged his support for The Times Cities Fit for Cycling campaign yesterday after a backlash over his claims that an influx of inexperienced cyclists would inevitably lead to more road accidents.

Campaigners and politicians were calling for a boycott of Addison Lee minicabs after John Griffin, the company’s chairman, suggested that cyclists were irresponsible for “throwing themselves on to some of the most congested spaces in the world”.

He also dismissed the views of people who were “up in arms about what they see as the murder of cyclists on London roads”. His column, published in his company’s Add Lib magazine, came in the same week that he instructed 3,500 Addison Lee drivers in London to flout the…